For the last twenty years, Solo Piano has been one of our absolutely most-played albums at Drift. A place of spectacular salvation with each and every playback.

Originally released in September 2004, Solo Piano is precisely that; sixteen seraphic piano meditations from the "The President of the Berlin Underground"; producer, MC and raconteur par excellence, Chilly Gonzales. It was actually released originally mononymously as Gonzales, but it sure was them same hands! Piano themes for left hand accompaniment and right hand melody, as he explains.
Chilly was already quite established as a rapper and producer, with four albums for the German label Kitty-yo winning a strong following (and ultimately leading into a production with artists like Feist, Peaches, Daft Punk and Drake). He was however a classically trained piano graduate from Montreal’s McGill University, so the bold step into contemporary classical wasn’t necessarily as capricious as it might have seemed. From its hyper dexterous opening runs, Solo Piano is totally enthralling.

Graceful and deeply poetic throughout, Gonzales’ playing style is precise and intricate. Like Erik Satie or Claude Debussy, Solo Piano is elegant, but also filled with wry misdirection and musical in-jokes. Each piece is full of identity, delicate compositions that never outstay their welcome like two-minute pop bangers.

“Although they say the piano can create the most colours of any instrument, it is actually black and white, much like an old silent movie. Staring down at my hands, I imagine each piano piece as a shadow against the wall.”
- Gonzales.

Fourteen years later he would release the final part of the Solo Piano trilogy. In that time he also collaborated with Hamburg's Kaiser Quartett and secured the Guinness book’s world record for the longest solo concert (27 hours 3 minutes 44 seconds). His services to the keys are indubitable.

The entire trilogy is spectacular, but this Sunday Classic took us back to the first record and specifically to the very first time we heard the opening piece, Gogol. Solo Piano is a magical album; distinct at different times of day, divergent in different lights. These compositions captured such amazing emotion, it is empowering, sad, beautiful and funny.

It is a masterpiece.




Extended Reading

“Why I Regret Giving Birth to the Neoclassical Genre”
Twenty years on from the release of his first Solo Piano album, Gonzales writes for The Quietus on his regret that the music he helped to bring into existence now provides easy fodder for streaming algorithms, and piles of cash for a lazy music business.